Monday, February 14, 2011
Moore: Nonesuch closing: Is playing field level for commercial theater?
The Denver Post: "In the wake of the announcement that Fort Collins' Nonesuch Theater will close on April 9, owner Nick Turner is mulling a big and compelling question: 'Why do we as a society place more value on nonprofit theater than for-profit theater?' he asked. We certainly subsidize nonprofits with tax-deductible gifts, to the exclusion of commercial ventures.
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3 comments:
It's always unfortunate to see a theatre company close its doors, and especially so when it's a small salon theatre company presenting intimate work to combat the super big-budget musical tours, but this goes back to the ultimate discussion of profit v. non-profit. By designating your organization as not-for-profit, the implication is that organization will not be self-sufficient, but will rely on the community's support in exchange for contributing culture and art, and the implication is reversed (self-sufficient and providing art and culture as a product to be bought) when working under a for-profit scheme. For a tiny 49-seat theatre, it seems the not-for-profit structure would have been beneficial just to keep the company supported, and it seems the owner wished he could go back and make it so at the beginning, but by declaring the theatre company for-profit, the company inherently took on the risk of fending for itself as a business.
For what it costs to put on a show, even the small ones, for-profits take a risk that they will be able even their debts with tickets sales. What big Broadway theaters have are exposure, high tourist traffic areas, and sometimes big names. Therefore, they have the advantage of almost always advertising to new people their show and getting people to come out and see their show. Small theater's take bigger risks in off-beat locations and no-name casts. The size of this theater feels more like a community theater than something to make a living off of. At best, it seems there only luck in the business would be to hopefully break even at the end of the year. Theatre is a tough business is the United States and only the big players can successfully make the profit, but they are also take much bigger risks. It seems mom and pop theaters, unless they are dinner theaters, might not have the change to survive unless they rely on non-profit income.
This article rings bitter sweet for me. It is interesting, and welcome to note that notforprofit theater receives support, but it is sad to see how much for profit, and notforprofit theaters alike have to struggle. The fact that this theater had to close is unfortunate, and one wonders could a notforprofit business structure have saved them from their fate? The idea of notforprofit theater is almost safer, because of how difficult, in many situations it can be to profit from theater.
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